138 PKOCEEDINGS OP SOCIETIES. 



Apparatus and Slides. 



A Smith and Beck Binocular Microscope and quantity of 



Apparatus, &c Chas. Woodward, Esq. 



3 Slides Mr. Kittnn. 



42 Slides of North American Algse Wr Wood and 



° \ Mrs. Qmmby. 



4 Slides Capt. Perry. 



Nine Fellows have been elected during the past year. 

 Five Fellows have deceased during the same period. 



Charles Palmer Gibson, of Hull, elected Feb. 7, 1872, died June 9, 1873. 

 ♦William Richard Morris, of Deptford, elected March 11, 1851, died Jan. II, 1874. 

 *Johu Augustus Tulk, of Addlestone, Surrey, elected Jan. 11, 1860, died 



Dec. 17, 1873. 

 **Cornelius Varley, of 337, Kentish Town, elecied Jan. 29, 1840, died Oct. 2, 1873. 

 John Martin, M.D., of Portsmouth, elected Dec. 11, 1867, died . 



The obituary of this Society during the jDast year comprises the 

 name of one of the veterans of microscopic science, and of the 

 founders of the Society, Cornelius Varley. In his younger days he 

 was an artist of some reputation, and with his brother, John Varley, 

 the celebrated water-colour painter, was one of the founders of the 

 Society of the Painters in Water Colours, and of these he was the 

 survivor ; but what is of more immediate interest on the present 

 occasion is his career as a microscopist. 



He was born in 1781, and having lost his father, his uncle, Samuel 

 Varley, took charge of him in 1793, and was assisted by him in his 

 scientific pursuits, and in the manufacture of physical apparatus for 

 optical, electrical, and other experiments. 



In 1794 he effected a great improvement in the art of polishing 

 lenses, by substituting for the silk and cloth then in use beeswax 

 hardened with " crocus martis," or oxide of iron ; this compound is, it 

 is believed, still found to be the best for the jiurpose, and is still in 

 use by most manufacturers. For very small lenses he used shellac 

 hardened with polishing oxides. 



In 1795, at a meeting of a "Friendly Microscopical Society," 

 founded by his uncle, the lenses made by 0. Varley were declared to 

 be the best then exhibited ; and about this date he manufactured 

 many small and perfect lenses of 0" 016 inch focus, and three lenses of 

 only 0*01 inch focus. In 1801 he patented his "Graphic Tele- 

 scope," and subsequently invented his " Grajihic Microscope."^ 



From 1801 until 1823 C. Varley chiefly occupied his time in the 

 pursuit of the fine arts — his favourite study — and to which he occa- 

 sionally devoted himself during the remainder of his life, having 

 commenced and completed his last picture in his ninetieth year : he 

 made great use of the microscope in the selection of suitable pigments, 

 and by the same means discovered the causes of decay in water-colour 

 drawings. By the aid of the microscope he superseded the monopoly 

 held by the Belgians in lithographic stones ; having access to an 

 extensive geological collection, he sought for and met with sj^ecimens 

 which, under a high power, presented a texture similar to that of the 



